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They Got Me: 1955

1955 was the height of Davy Crockett mania, and while I never got a coonskin cap, I was as wrapped up in it as most kids of the time, hence the "Dying at the Alamo" concept of this shot. Didn't have any arrows, so I had to improvise with that twig. My eye patch, which I was forced to wear in an unsuccessful attempt to deal with my "lazy eye" condition, sort of adds to the effect. (It was unsuccessful because I kept cheating by peeling it up so I could read my comic books.) I think that was an official Boy Scout canteen, but I don't know where we got it, since neither of us were in the Scouts. Sharp-eyed camera bugs will notice my brother used fill flash with this Kodachrome; he'd borrowed or rented a fancy electronic flash unit.

Glad to see that someone else recalls that cartoon show on Channel 4 with the zany "puppet" carrot with its long "hair" flailing about! There was a short daily show right around the evening news with a longer one on Saturday afternoons. (I entered the drawing contest a time or two, not winning anything.) I've a few TV Guides from the era. We got our first TV in May 1955 (GE lemon), which was replaced by an RCA in early 1957 when we moved from Hayward to Novato (for less than 6 months). Now there was Deputy Dave on weekdays and Captain Fortune on Saturday mornings on KPIX-5. KGO-7 had the Mickey Mouse Club.

In defense of anon tipster, the tterrace photos are becoming similar to sitting through a neighbors slide show of their vacation in who care's where. Since I lived in this time period, I can look at my own photos for "blast from that past". Brandicoot doesn't speak for us all and it she doesn't like some comments, she can skip them. HaHa.

[I think the majority opinion here would be that tterrace's photographs are quite good. And exceptionally so. The read counter speaks louder than words. - Dave]

These family photos are, in their own way, as much a documentation of their time as photos of a Washington swimming beach from the 1920s. Photos which I'm sure someone at the time called "dumb pictures" because they weren't of the Battle of Antietam. I'm sure Anonymous Tipster's baby pictures will eventually fill that niche - hopefully when the youngest of us has died of old age.

Y'know, it always amazes me when someone says something like, "I am not into family pictures..." and just assumes that if he (or, possibly she) is of that opinion, then everyone must be. Forcryinoutloud... if you don't like a certain kind of picture, skip over it. But at least grow up!

My grandson had amblyopia and had to wear an eye patch for a whole school year when he was in 1st Grade. Thanks to Jack Sparrow, he was the hit of the year and all the girls and boys thought it was really neat.

You post the most awesome pictures. I really enjoy looking at how the generation my husband came from, and the one right before mine, played and lived. We played Army, cowboys and Indians and other games, but Davy Crockett was no longer a "thing" when I was a kid.

How did two such red-blooded American boys manage to grow up without being Boy Scouts? Which brings me to something I hesitate to even mention. (Yet here I am mentioning it!) Did your brother turn into ... a beatnik? And you. Were you ... a hippie?

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.